Push to ban stickers covering cigarette warnings

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says the Federal Government should act quickly to stop a company making stickers to hide health warnings on cigarette boxes.

A Gold Coast company is making a variety of stickers to hide the olive green plain packaging and graphic warnings on tobacco products.

Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek has asked lawyers to investigate whether the stickers breach the plain packaging laws, which came into effect less than a fortnight ago.

AMA president Steve Hambleton says the stickers need to be stopped.

"Those graphic health warnings are there for a very important reason. Over a million Australians have died because they smoked, but I think covering up those health warnings, I think the Federal Government is going to act very quickly and ban those products," he said.

"It is just morally wrong for a business to profit from selling items in relation to goods that are lethal when you use them as the manufacturer intended."

Dr Hambleton says the Government needs to look at any methods that may be used to circumvent the plain packaging legislation.

"It's there for a very good reason. We believe it will decrease smoking rates in Australia by another notch so we don't want to see anything that can actually get around this legislation," he said.

The inventor of the stickers, Anothony Do Rozario, says the plain packaging laws are a step too far.

"Obviously we're in business to make money, but essentially, I think it's important for Australians to have freedom of choice," he said.